There’s a new contender for Christian Grey, and he’s definitely a departure from the other names being mentioned for the role. Francois Arnaud, best known for The Borgias, has been listed as a surprise frontrunner to take over from Charlie Hunnam for Fifty Shades of Grey.
With Charlie Hunnam departing so suddenly, the studio and filmmakers have been in a mad scramble to find a replacement for him. We’ve been hearing of mostly unknowns, with the exception of Alexander Skarsgard, and at this point, I think it’s pretty much the only way they can go. How sad is it that they are willing to choose unproven and unknown actors over Ian Somerhalder? The poor guy must be devastated.
Anyway, Arnaud definitely has the charm to pull off the role, but with fans this crazy passionate, who knows if they’ll ever be happy. In their minds, only Matt Bomer or Henry Cavill are right for the role, and if it’s not those two, they’re going to hold petitions and call for boycotts.
In Arnaud’s case, we really haven’t seen enough from him to know whether he’ll be right for the role – he’s a solid actor, but there are people who do well in period pieces but fall apart in contemporary films [cough, Keira Knightley, cough]. Fifty Shades of Grey needs an actor that is so confident in his abilities that it practically oozes off him, but it’s hard to tell if Francois is the right guy for that.
Of course, there’ll still be plenty of chemistry tests between Arnaud and leading lady Dakota Johnson, so we’ll have to see who ends up winning out. For now, Jamie Dornan still seems to be the frontrunner, but Arnaud might gain an advantage if he has better chemistry with Dakota.
What do you guys think? Who are you hoping will replace Charlie as Christian Grey? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
